Ollie Update

Oliver vs. the Apple Slice

/ Shane / 3 Comments

I defy anyone to watch this video and not get a big goofy grin on their face.

Bleaching the Baby

/ Shane / 5 Comments

I mentioned that Oliver has developed a really bad rash all over his body. Despite our best efforts, we just couldn’t beat the thing, it was a monster rash. Finally we did some Internet searching, and eventually our doctor confirmed that he had a textbook case of eczema.

I always thought that eczema was just like really bad dry skin. It certainly looks like it, and it’s certainly itchy like dry skin is. However, since I have been learning about eczema, it actually has nothing to do with that. Well, I shouldn’t say nothing to do with it, since dry skin can bring on a bout of eczema. But really, eczema is about allergies.

Regular allergies are when your body overreacts to something. Eczema is no different. However, not everybody who has eczema is necessarily allergic to the same thing. So eczema is something of a mystery, since there’s no root cause and everybody’s body is a little bit different.

We were already doing some things, like slathering on the Vaseline every night and using some hydrocortisone cream on the bad patches now and again, but that didn’t seem to be enough. So Sara hit the books, looking for anything that could help. Many people recommend eliminating dairy, but there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence supporting that theory. However, one study stood out: bleach baths.

It turns out that bathing twice a week in a bathtub of water and diluted bleach significantly helps reduce eczema. It sounds pretty crazy, especially since bleach is so caustic, but the study was pretty clear: it works. The doctor gave us the go ahead, and we gave it a try.

The results weren’t as dramatic as we were hoping (or as the results of the study implied). The eczema certainly wasn’t worse, and it may have been a bit better. But certainly there was no miraculous recovery. We’ve only been doing it for a week and a half or so, so we’ll continue for a while and see what happens. However, our hopes for a quick cure have been dashed.

Lately our efforts have been focused on detergent. It has been theorized that a lot more kids are allergic to detergent than is generally thought, and that is to blame for more than just eczema. However, the research does seem to show that detergent allergies absolutely can cause eczema. So we are currently trying to keep anything that has been washed with detergent from touching Oliver’s skin. This is more difficult than it sounds, or at least it is at first, until we manage to get everything re-washed with different soap that does not have detergent.

This has only been going on for a few days, so it is too soon to tell, but it seems like it is having a positive effect so far. However, we need to wait and see. At this point there is a lot of, “But it looks better on his chest, right?” or “Don’t you think his neck looks better tonight?” So we don’t want to declare victory before victory is to be had.

As long as I am doing an Ollie Update, I might as well throw in a few other things:

  1. He is rolling all over the place like a maniac. He hasn’t really been crawling yet, but he looks like he’s ready to at any moment. However, he doesn’t really need to crawl, because he can get where ever he needs to by rolling, pivoting, and rolling some more.
  2. He likes to “talk” which mostly includes “Da da da da!”s. He just looks so serious when he’s saying it, and he proclaims it so loudly, it really seems like he’s trying to say something.
  3. He really likes the idea of eating solids, but he gets tired of actually doing it pretty quick. He will still try to grab anything in sight, and he may even try to eat food out of your mouth.

We’re clearly starving the poor boy

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Oliver has been very interested in food for a while. If you are holding him and trying to eat, he will try to dive bomb any food that comes anywhere near his face. So finally we gave in and let him try some stuff.

The first thing we really tried was to give him some chunks of apples to gum up (eating is vastly less effective when you don’t have teeth). Every time he got a hold of a piece he would cackle maniacally, like he was really getting away with something. It was like he just couldn’t contain his glee. It was hilarious. After that we tried a few other times. The first time we put him in the high chair, he was again giggling like it was the funniest thing ever.

It is too stressful for me to watch him eat. I’m on the edge of my seat, adrenaline pumping through my system, ready to give him CPR at a moment’s notice when he inevitably chokes himself. He was stuffing this breadstick so far into his mouth, he would gag every time. But he still kept at it, like he was having a grand old time. I guess that’s how you learn.

With the way he attacks food, you’d think that we weren’t feeding him enough or something. However, he’s not going to fool anybody with that, considering he’s the size of a one year old. It’s just so odd since Evie was so ambivalent towards food. Oliver is anything but ambivalent.

The other funny thing about it is how lazy he is with his hands. If he can get away with not holding the food or bringing it to his mouth, he will. If you just try to help him get a better grip, he will drop his hands away like, “Oh good, you’ll be feeding it to me from now on.”

If you want it so bad, get it yourself, lazy bones!

Ollie Update

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Oliver has been officially rolling over lately. He has been rolling over sporadically for weeks, but we are never sure if we should count it, because there was always some extenuating circumstances. First he would roll over when I was sitting on the bed. So I would think, “Well, that doesn’t count, he’s just falling in the crater made by my heinie.” Then I would sit somewhere else and he would roll over and I would think, “Well, I’m still technically on the bed, so maybe I’m helping him somehow.” So there was always some reason why it wasn’t a “real” roll.

Finally however, there can be no doubt. He can do it repeatedly on a flat surface, like the floor. I think he just finally realized that if he wants a toy or something, he can roll over to get to it. I remember that’s how we got Evie to roll over, by offering her some toy just out of her reach. That hadn’t been working on Oliver, because he would just sort of go, “Oh well, I can’t get it,” and either ignore it or cry. This time he was actively trying to get the toy, and rolling over. It looks like it won’t be long before he can roll the other way too. Of course this opens up all sorts of awful possibilities and he can no longer be left alone on the bed.

He also managed to sit up by himself for about 3 seconds. He loves to be in the sitting position, but he hasn’t had the balance to do it by himself. So hopefully he can learn to sit up by himself and then we won’t have to hold him up like that all the time.

He’s also getting pretty good at holding his head up. When he’s lying on his stomach, he just looks like he is ready to crawl away at any second. I know he probably won’t for a long time, but he looks like he’s ready to go.

He seems to be very interested in solid food. If you are holding him and eating, he’ll try to dive out of your hands and take a bite out of anything coming his way. We’ve given him a few tastes and his enthusiasm hasn’t seemed to diminish. Hopefully this means he will switch to solids without much fuss. Evie wasn’t interested in them at all when it was time for her to start on them.

You can get him to laugh, but Oliver is very stingy with his laughs! He smiles big smiles, sometimes he even squeals, but an actual laugh is pretty rare. We get him maybe once every few days or so. Hopefully this doesn’t mean he is going to be very serious when he grows up. I kind of doubt it though, in this family.

Also this week, Ollie went to daycare for the first time. All in all it was much less traumatic for us than when Evie went to daycare for the first time. I just remember being so sad and everything that our little baby was going to be with some stranger all day. With Oliver it was more just like part of the daily routine. I didn’t even feel even the smallest twinge of guilt. He did sob inconsolably for a while to me when I got home from work. I think he was trying to pay me back for abandoning him. Other than that though he seemed to take everything pretty well.

So that’s about it, he’s growing up fast!

First Day Flying Solo

/ Shane / 2 Comments

I haven’t spent much time alone watching the kids. Or really any time whatsoever. So as last Friday approached, I began to get a little nervous.

I wasn’t completely nervous. I remember being a lot more nervous about the first day I spent alone with Evie, back when she was a baby. I was so afraid I would forget to feed her or change her diaper that I kept meticulous notes, with times down to the minute, that I could refer to. But that ultimately worked out okay, and became second nature before too long, so I was a little more confident with that experience under my belt. I should also mention that Sara manages the two of them all the time, every day, so obviously I knew it was theoretically possible to deal with the two of them with only one parent.

So this time around I wasn’t worried about that sort of thing, but I was still worried about being able to take care of Ollie with the distraction of Evie. The main thing I was worried about though was not being able to calm Ollie down if he got upset.

With Evie I was pretty good at soothing her. I had all the skills down, and I knew what to do in certain circumstances. I knew what she would respond to. I realized that I didn’t have the same set of skills with Oliver. The things that worked for Evie don’t necessarily work for him.

The problem is that we tend to pair off; it is usually easier for Sara to take Oliver and for me to take Evie. As we started to do this more and more it sort of reinforced itself, because all the extra practice meant that Sara got better at dealing with Oliver, and I got better at dealing with Evie. Which meant that it became even more obvious for Sara to take Oliver and me to take Evie, etc.

Sometimes in the evening I would take care of Oliver while Sara made supper, and those times often did NOT go well. Sometimes he would sob the entire time until she was ready to take him back.

So basically, I was a little nervous about not having good Oliver-skillz, but I was also confident that I would develop them in time. It’s just that the first few weeks could be sort of disastrous until this happened.

So Thursday morning Sara was out for about 2 hours, so I had a bit of a trial run. It went more or less okay, but there was a little bit of a rough patch for about 1/2 an hour. Oliver was laying in the gym and smiling. Whenever he would turn his head and look at me, he would get this terrible, sad, pouty look on his face and start quietly sobbing to himself. Then he would turn his head away and look at something else and be all smiles again for a while. This wasn’t sobbing cries, he just looked very, very sad. It was like looking at me reminded him that his momma wasn’t home, and he missed her. This did eventually devolve into sobs that I had a lot of trouble getting rid of, which was more or less what I had experienced in the evenings.

So this trial run didn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence going into the first full day. However, I am happy to report, the day actually went great!

We had a play date in the morning (with someone I had never met no less!) but that went really good and helped break up the day some. Sara is of the opinion that the kids are easier to manage out of the house than in, and I am inclined to agree. Oliver was all smiles all day. He didn’t really sleep hardly at all, but despite that, he was still in a good mood when Sara got home.

So all of my worries were for nothing! I’m sure we will still have some bad days, but the more good days we have, the easier it will be to get through the bad days.